From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think...

First palladium, now platinum?

Platnuim broke out of an inverted head and shoulders pattern last week, printing fresh 52-week highs.

The bullish data points continue to roll in despite the waning strength in gold and silver.

Check it out!

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Our precious metals index is hitting fresh 52-week highs despite the waning strength in gold and silver.

Only three markets comprise the index. That leaves only one possible culprit – platinum!

First palladium, now platinum?

It doesn’t matter whether you consider platinum or palladium true precious metals. The industrious side of the family is chipping in, supporting a new structural uptrend for the entire space. 

Let’s check it out!

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

I think this market might be on hold till Big Tech earnings are behind us.

Time will tell.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Our precious metals index is hitting fresh 52-week highs despite the waning strength in gold and silver.

Only three markets comprise the index. That leaves only one possible culprit – platinum!

First palladium, now platinum?

It doesn’t matter whether you consider platinum or palladium true precious metals. The industrious side of the family is chipping in, supporting a new structural uptrend for the entire space. 

Let’s check it out!

Before we dive into the levels…

Commercial hedgers are unwinding their net-long position after reaching extremes last year. Similar positioning in 2018 marked a key inflection point, resulting in a multi-year rally.

The bullish sentiment of commercial hedgers supports a sustained rally (much like the positioning in palladium).

Whether platinum catches higher in the coming weeks and months partially depends on a further unwind in commercial positioning. 

Remember, commitments of traders positioning reflects sentiment. It’s not a trade signal. But it does reveal critical aspects of the market environment. In this case, it’s...

In an effort to provide some much-needed portfolio diversification, I'm adding a delta-neutral credit spread to the mix.

There aren't a whole lot of juicy premiums out there (thank you plummeting $VIX!), but there is an ETF in a sector that looks set up for some sideways digestion over the near term that should play nice with a short Strangle.

P.S. We do trades like this regularly. If you'd like to leverage Best-in-Class technical analysis into smarter directional options trades, try out All Star Options Risk Free! Or give us a call to learn more: 323-421-7991.

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

Today’s Hot List is a short one.

The most significant insider transaction is a 13D filed by Perceptive Advisors.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We have a big week ahead of us as far as earnings go.

The indices have been holding on for the past two weeks, but we've barely gone anywhere.

You want to talk about trends?

The biggest trend I see is that stocks keep going up in price, but investors are more pessimistic than ever.

I don't understand...

What are people so angry about? Why are they so scared?

Barron's latest Big Money poll shows that out of the 130 managers polled only 6% of their clients were bullish.

lol 6%?

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.